Wait until the evening

by Hal Bennett

258 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

George Harold "Hal" Bennett (1936 – 2004),[1][2] was an author known for a variety of books. His 1974 novel Lord of Dark Places was described as "a satirical and all but scatological attack on the phallic myth",[3] and was reprinted in 1997. He was Playboy's most promising writer of the year [1]. He has also written under the pen names Harriet Janeway and John D. Revere (the Assassin series). His books are sometimes compared to Mark Twain's style of satire, but contain a much stronger sexual tone.

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

A high-water mark in mid century regional literature. Hold the fucking phone: every time you think there’s no way Bennett is gonna ‘go there,’ he goes so far beyond the pale that you can’t help but be impressed by the audacity and originality. I’ll ruin none for you, but will testify that this catalogue of infinite nightmares brings zero parallels to mind. Not that it’s needed, but Evening is another divinely pounded nail in the coffin of McCarthyism and its desk jockey acolytes.

Or:

Let me misappropriate my old T-shirt regarding that whole Blood Meridian scene: Twee As Fuck, especially when compared to Hal Bennett. Or Beat Happening, for that matter.

[Ryan Grinas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hal Bennett delivers a tightly controlled and powerful epic in “Wait Until the Evening”. It’s criminal that his works aren’t well known and I acknowledge Clifford Lee Sargent (forgive me if I misspell you name) from his YouTube channel Better Than Food book reviews and his review of “Lord of Dark Places” for my awareness of Bennett.

Wait Until the Evening blends southern gothic, detective mystery, drama and horror into this moving novel. When reading it, you get a sense of disillusionment and unease. The novel sets up scenes and characters in ways you think are predictable, only to completely change later. And this is a damn good thing.
You feel disoriented as you read with trepidation which speaks volumes to Bennett’s gift as a writer who is able to seamlessly blend different genres in a way that is immersive and refreshing.

Not much in terms of a plot summary or really any information is given about this book, so I’ll give you a bit of a summary here.
The novel is a follow-up to Lord of Dark Places, kind of. It follows a boy named Kevin Brittain, who lives with his optimistic mother, his alcoholic and abusive father and Kevin’s siblings.
Two notable siblings are Lurleen (the older sister) and Paul (his “stupid” brother, who plays a big role).
The novel opens with them working on Kevin’s grandfather’s farm, who himself is cruel towards anyone he meets. His grandfather dies about 10-20 pages into the book and Kevin attends the funeral, where he sees his Aunt Dolores.

Now I said this book was partly horror, because some scenes in this book are horrifying. I won’t spoil anything for you but just know that Kevin’s relationship with his family, characters he meets and people that seem neutral usually descend into unhealthy and insane events.

I will reread this book in the future and update my review as I will hopefully be able to add more to my praise towards this great masterpiece of fiction.
For now, if you like Bennett’s other works, Cormac McCarthy or William Faulkner, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

[Stewart Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic stuff, and absolutely criminal that it’s been out of print for so long and is so hard to come by today. I found this to be on par with Bennett’s masterpiece Lord of Dark Places if not quite as perfect - there’s a shared horror between both of those books, images in each of them that will shock even the most hardened readers, and a grim, death-facing sense of humor without which they would probably be too brutal to read. After being underwhelmed by Bennett’s debut A Wilderness of Vines, this one has completely reaffirmed my initial impression of him as a singularly powerful and unique voice in American fiction. May bump it to 5 stars next time I read it, since there are a lot of revelations in the final chapters that will change the flavor of the whole thing next time around.

[Sir Wallace Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true gem of southern Negro literature. You might be able to find it at your local library or find a used copy on amazon.